Alma Mater
by RestlessRuin
Summary: "Learn to love death's ink-black shadow as much as you love the light of dawn." - Tyrtaeus. A woman is selected, among others, to face trials and tribulations of many kinds. For years, the mysterious female Yautja watched them, intending to pursue the controversial glory of the fighting pits. (Will be rated M for mature content/adult themes as they develop later on.)
1. Chapter 1

**Rem:** I've just recently fallen into the AVP fandom. And besides having a desire to improve my writing, I had some ideas boiling in my head for some time. Please enjoy! And your reviews are greatly appreciated!

 _Disclaimer:_ I do not own the AVP universe, nor do I profit from any of these chapters/writings.

 _Story image:_ credit goes to K Putt (link in profile) image titled 'Space Engine'

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Desiree woke up to the bright heat of the sun.

Feeling drained and light headed, a single thought crossed her mind.

 _Shit!_

She startled up, expecting to be in her bed in her one bedroom apartment. Late for work, the thought terrified her. After completing her nursing degree, fresh out of university, sleeping in had been a constant worry for the new grad. The occasional nightmare, out of several, that included accidentally killing her patients for all various kinds of reasons. The kind of stuff she thought far too often on.

Before she could discern the sound of waves, the sight of the white beach– her head swirled and forced her back down. Her hands clenched into the sand as her breathing hitched, and her heart throbbed in her ears.

The world almost went black, _almost_.

She forced herself to breathe; in through the nose, out through the mouth.

At least the waves sounded calming enough. And as time passed the darkness receded, the sounds of the new world surrounding her quietly flooded in. Trees swaying and rubbing against each other, the sound of their leaves scraping, shuffling, and animals – perhaps insects too – that she couldn't recognize made noises.

She wanted to believe she was in a dream. And as that thought crept further into her mind; she decided she might as well take hold of it. There had been no other explanation to tell her otherwise. Desiree carefully lifted herself up onto her elbows, and then up into a sitting position. She decided to sit for a while, and take a moment to really observe where she had been placed in said dream.

The beach was long with few rocks. The edges of vegetation included yellow, tall and sparse grasses. The lush green of a jungle stark, and bright loomed over the edges of the sand and grass.

With all things considered, a tropical beach _wasn't so bad_. She thought it was beautiful as her eyes drifted to the ocean. Clear blue; with all sorts of exotic fish inhabiting the shallow waters not too far.

It must have been a part of the dream. Whatever was acting up in her head – the dizziness, dreams made things too real. She had experienced pain before in dreams. And yes, she had lost family members in dreams, and screamed herself awake when in reality nothing had actually happened. Not once in her life had she ever realized her dreams had been dreams while being in them.

The grogginess, the light-headed symptoms of her arrival meant nothing to her.

Happily she considered herself lucky, again. This would be the first dream she'd been able to discern. Ever. And on a tropical beach nonetheless.

Perfect.

Desiree finally looked at herself. She wore little, and recognized none of it. A one-fit t-shirt poorly scrapped together hung just below her knees. No bra, no underwear. That made her uncomfortable. That, and her bare feet. It would make going into the unknown jungle a very uncomfortable experience.

It was starting to make her uncomfortable as she sat, thinking about the sand and all the places she'd find it in. She squirmed at the thought, and moved to stand. Thankfully the world didn't spin.

Desiree walked up to the water's edge, right at the point where its waves reached before receding back into the ocean. Scanning out, there was nothing beyond the ocean's horizon. It met directly with the sky, and it was incredibly endless from her view. Taking a deep breath in, she started to walk the length of the beach ahead of her. She considered how dreams normally went. And the only survivalist dreams she'd encountered, and remembered, had been the zombie dreams.

Those dreams were hardly pleasant. Sometimes she would die, or those she had cared most ended up dying.

Either way, despite the charm her surroundings offered, she understood the smart idea of planning for the inevitable.

She only hoped it wasn't an island full of zombies.

With that thought in mind, she clenched her jaw and started planning.

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Desiree enjoyed watching survivalist movies. The occasional reality TV show featuring a guy in the middle of nowhere had been amusing, but she hardly ever took note of their tips and tricks. She wasn't a camper – her family had hardly been able to afford it. She enjoyed day hiking, but her dreams and aspirations of taking a seven-day hike on the tip of Vancouver Island had not come into fruition. Those plans had had a date and time in the future. And those classes on survival in the forests never booked; the job was going to cover that _soon_. The loans looming over her head had been the biggest threat to her financial security in the meantime.

Perhaps this dream would prove something.

As the first hour seemed to roll away, she managed to rip the sleeves off her shirt, and had gathered palm leaves to make some sort of shoe for her feet. It worked, in an odd, messed up way. Somehow she'd managed to use the strips of clothing as strings to hold the leaves together and around her foot. Whether they'd prove effective, and durable remained highly questionable.

The woman considered the position of the sun then, and didn't like the idea of sleeping without shelter. Among the plethora of things and items she required, for a second she felt overwhelmed and lost. If this were a dream, when would she wake? How long would this dream actually take? The rare dream spanned over months in dreamtime. What would that be like knowing she'd have to experience every second of it?

Shaking her head with a huff, she went back to work.

Desiree settled with an area just up above the beach. A sparse area of jungle that didn't appear thick and overcrowded, something she could work with. Gathering driftwood, and sticks along the border of the jungle she worked on a palm tree structure. Using one of the oddly grown trees, one that seemed to curve sideways a little before squiggling its trunk upwards, she leaned the longer sticks against it at an angle. She stuck other pieces of wood vertical on the other side so as to make a wall to her back.

As the light began to dim, she started placing the palm leaves down 'inside', and layering them on top of the sticks at an angle. It was weak, not very warm, but with limited time ahead of her she scrambled to make a pit of some sort to start a fire. Despite her best efforts, Desiree could not spark the wood. Preferring to keep her hands, and not wanting them to go raw from the efforts of rubbing wood, she crawled into the structure.

Desiree's thoughts immediately went to her stomach. The need for food made her mouth water, a good sign, considering she hadn't found any. The feeling of hunger brought her back to her memories in university, competing in the women's varsity wrestling team. At any given time she had two kilos to cut, sometimes three despite the two-kilo grace they allowed for regular weigh ins.

Growing up she'd promised herself she wouldn't do that. It must have been the mentality, no – the reality of it all. Everyone 'did it'. And some weigh ins had been easy, others, not so much. She envied the men because they could loose the water weight fast, and quite a lot. It made five kilos – eleven pounds - look easy, but it had been the worst two days of her small, varsity-wrestling career.

Not the kind of wrestling where you'd expect a woman to have double D's, a sexy outfit, and a cheesy name to scream into the crowd. Unless you managed to cut weight without your tits shriveling from the water loss; scratch that, the dieting, and the weight cut.

She giggled at the thought.

Pretending that she was in fact fasting for something spiritual, seemed to get her through the constant pangs of hunger on a weigh in.

But the worst feeling of it all had been the water loss. And if she couldn't find water in three days, in this heat, she'd die. And dying from thirst was a very, very uncomfortable way to die in a dream.

Drawing up several dried out palm leaves on, and about her, she closed her eyes. Curled up as much as she could in her pathetic little structure, she hoped she could dive right back into sleep. And perhaps she might even wake up when she did. In reality land.

Surprisingly, even as the temperature cooled at night, and past her fears of insects crawling into her hair, she fell asleep.

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Something had grabbed her in the night. Light was flickering from somewhere. But she had been too slow. Quickly, suddenly, her structure tumbled and a hand shoved her shoulder down. Something straddled her, something else pressed against her neck. It felt cool to her skin as she felt herself perspire more. Eyes cracked open, trying to adjust to the night and make sense of the looming figure.

"Don't move!" The harsh voice, female, warned her.

"You do anything stupid, and I'll cut your throat. Alright?"

Desiree did not have the words, and mumbled something incoherent.

"What?" The stranger snapped and slapped the side of her head. It stung, but other than that it was harmless.

The knife was starting to dig into her skin.

"Y-Yeah! Okay, I get it!" This wasn't a position she often found herself in. It had been too easy.

"Who are you? What do you do? What year is it?"

Desiree blinked, and fumbled.

"Ah… ah- it's, it's the year twenty seventeen, August third." She took a breath. "My name… it's ah, Desiree. And I'm a nurse, a ah, yeah I'm registered and all that."

The hazel eyes gleamed in the low light of the fire. The strange woman had been carrying a hand made torch and stuck it into the ground nearby. She looked ragged from what she could tell by the light. It was hard for Desiree to read her expression then; features tight, stressed, but otherwise blank.

"A nurse?" The stranger seemed to contemplate this. Desiree watched, as the woman's eyes seemed to withdraw in a headspace far, far away from her.

"You're coming with me."

"Wait, what's your name?"

"No time, get up, now." These commands seemed to seethe in the air. This woman would have no patience for her. Lifting the jagged edges of the knife from her neck, she stepped away and grabbed the torch from the ground.

"Where are we going?" Desiree prodded the woman as she got up. Briefly happy that she had constructed her weak pair of tree shoes ahead of time.

"Somewhere… safe, for now."

Desiree was still waking up. But the answer made her pale. The woman ahead of her was gaunt, muscled nonetheless, but obviously not well fed, and worn.

"It's not zombies, is it?"

Desiree would have preferred a snort, or a grin of amusement that would have told her otherwise. But the woman continued to stare at her with numbness in her expression, hardly an expression to begin with. She must have ignored Desiree's question, because something intense burned in her eyes as she clenched her hand around the torch.

"Follow me."

Her heart was pounding again. Desiree nodded in compliance. There must have been a good reason for a woman with a knife to reconsider killing her. Despite the doubts that trickled with her appearance, Desiree had no choice.

There was something out there.

With the desire to know more from this woman, Desiree followed closely behind her as she skirted them along the beach. The stranger stopped, glanced back, and then moved them into the jungle.

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 _To be continued…_

 **Rem:** not too much action yet. But things will heat up in the next two chapters. Tell me what you think! Feedback and reviews are much appreciated, thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Rem:** Another one! I wanted to get the build up out there. Enjoy!

 _Disclaimer:_ I do not own the AVP universe, nor do I profit from any of these chapters.

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Despite the extra light from the torch, following behind the strange woman proved difficult. The thick vegetation had the uncanny sensation of clinging on to Desiree's arms, legs, and hair. She frantically swatted at things that tickled on her arms.

The young woman could not shake the feeling of fear that had finally nestled into her psyche. She couldn't quite pinpoint when it had, she'd been too dazed and jacked on adrenaline to really consider the knife as a threat.

Her muscles clenched, her eyes wide, she figured it must have been the jungle itself. It was slightly reassuring to have a guide ahead of her, but such subtle reassurances paled in comparison to the unknown darkness breathing down her back. All she could hear was the soft patter of their feet, and the shifting of foliage as they jogged further in.

As they continued, the sky began lighting up just barely above the canopy.

Breathless and feeling the fatigue draw into her limbs, she began to slow.

"A-are… we, we almost there?" She drew in a sharp breath.

"Where the… hell, are we going, anyways?"

The woman ignored her, and seemed to grunt, mumbling something underneath her breath. Desiree thus, forced herself to keep up. It'd been too long since she had actually run for cardio - or any cardio for that matter.

Desiree stopped as the woman came to a halt. The sun was moving quite fast, as light dappled through the leaves of the canopy. And yet, there still remained a darkness all around them, shadows that swayed and cracked. The trees most likely, but the fear had tainted Desiree's perception with unknown threats.

The woman had stopped them at a muddy pond. The sound of insects crawled in from every direction, but signs of that life were obviously present in the pond. She regarded the canopy, and then stared at her with her rigid gaze.

"They put something in your skin. It lets them track you."

"Who are… they?" Desiree tried to catch her breath.

The woman shrugged and approached her, grabbing for her right arm. Desiree flinched and tried to pull away. The woman gripped harder and gave her a harsh shove.

"Trust me." She hissed.

 _Why should I?_ The thought crossed, hung on her lips. And yet it was foolish to question, despite having no knowledge about this place. Nonetheless she balled her hands.

"The moment… we get a chance-," the woman snorted and grabbed her arm roughly again.

"There is no time. No moment." She began manhandling Desiree, rough and calloused as she turned her.

Irritated, the young woman complied. The strange woman's movements slowed, crouched and inspected her legs. Finally she stood and gestured with her jaw.

"Strip."

"You're kidding me? Now?"

"They change where they put it. Sometimes it's an easy find. Others, not so much."

"Where did-."

"Hurry!" The woman barked and grabbed at the ends of her apparel. Desiree squeaked and slapped at her hands. "Yeah, yeah! I got it, jeeze…"

With a heavy sigh she took it off. In a locker room it had never bothered her. But her body hadn't been the same ever since she stopped wrestling. It was kind of chunky now, rolly. The whole intermittent fasting must have screwed with her metabolism; at least, that was her excuse.

Self-consciously she covered her groin and breasts with her arms. Those rough hands prodded and shoved her to turn.

"Stop!" The woman hissed. Her hands rubbed along the side of her lower left ribs, along one of the bony gaps. "It's not… not _too_ deep, right?" Ribs were unpleasant. Sticking things in between, let alone a dislocation proved painful enough.

"Doesn't matter. Need it out." The woman put her knife into the small flame of the torch.

"Lie down, on your side."

Scanning quickly for a relatively cleared space, and having found none, she placed her garment on the forest floor and plopped herself on her side. "Lots of bugs down here…"

The woman kneeled and shoved the other end of the torch nearby into the ground. Rubbing along the gap between the ribs, she pulled her skin one way, and made a shallow slice through. Desiree held her breath and clenched her teeth. " _Shit…!_ "

The woman carefully sliced again. "… got it."

She fiddled with the small wound, and cursed when something seemed to fall from her grasp.

With tears in her eyes, Desiree shuddered. "What is it?"

With another curse she heard the woman drive her knife down into the earth, fairly close to her head.

"What?!" She was about to get up, when the woman shoved the small torch into the fresh wound. That had made her scream. Covering her mouth, a few tears rolled past her cheek. After a few seconds passed she scrambled up and snatched her clothing.

Quickly, she ruffled and swatted anything on it before donning it. "What the hell happened?" She spat.

The woman was still crouched down, examining something.

"Hey!"

She held her knife up. Some sort of parasitic creature, long and tubular, and see-through squirmed impaled by her knife.

Desiree cringed, her frown deepened as she blinked several times again. The woman sneered.

"They'll know now." Her eyes darted up onto Desiree, before using the torch to crush it from its smoldering end.

"Everything can smell you here…" She pointed to the pond. "Use the mud. Armpits, groin, feet. All over."

Desiree stood there, staring back at her. After only a few seconds, the other woman snapped at her, "Hurry!"

"… yeah." Wiping something away from her eyes, she approached the pond. Her face scrunched, displeased by what sort of things lived in that mud. With a quick breath in, she began the process of covering herself. Prompted by the woman to speed up.

As she did so, the strange woman paced, eyes staring hard and long into the jungle.

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Oak'or wasn't in a rush to track the female.

He had taken his time later on in the day, following the one named _Loo-cee_ with an irritating amusement. The ooman had proven one thing to him.

Keeping that in mind, he tried to ignore the lack of will he had for such a mindless pursuit.

Having been far too experienced for the likes of playing his particular role, he followed with his shame smoldering like coals. For that reason he carried very little with him. Perhaps one of the more dangerous animals would come along, and provide a challenge that would quench this frustration.

He did not know how long he could bear it.

Perhaps he should have killed himself a long time ago, when it had been honorable to do so. Rather than suffer underneath the council's ruling. Oak'or's mandibles clenched at the thought.

The wind picked up, as he crouched down at the edge of the beach. There was something else in the air. He could taste them, a familiar scent that did not worry him at all.

 _Loo-cee_ had proven herself clever in the past. But being as indifferent as he was about the oomans, he did not think twice about her possible death.

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Desiree continued to follow.

The woman refused to give up her name.

It was starting to exhaust her, being on edge for so long. They did not break often, and when they did it was only for about thirty seconds. Her mouth had gone dry, and as the silence stretched between the ambiance of the jungle's noise, her hunger throbbed in noticeable waves.

Something had made the woman stop suddenly. In an instant, the woman ahead of her had become stone. Desiree watched, half mesmerized by her stillness. But of all the noises that plagued from every direction of the jungle, she did not hear anything out of the ordinary.

The woman's hand went out to her. Palm up and motioned for her to 'stop', it probably meant to be still considering the circumstance. The woman carefully turned her head. After another moment she motioned Desiree to follow her. Trying to mimic her careful steps, they found cover in a thick brush, among several trees and vines that interconnected.

Since their departure from the mud pond, the woman had discarded the torch into its murky waters. Besides her knife, she carried a pack out of a material Desiree was uncertain about. It clung to her hips, and seemed to provide easy access.

Desiree was doing her best to stay still. It was harder than she'd thought it would be. Instead of kneeling down she'd crouched and balanced on her feet. The longer she stayed in that position, the more her muscles started to seize. An impending cramp was slowly making its way from her lower back up, and into the soles of her feet to her calves.

As the minutes drawled in the humid heat, she caught something.

It was nothing she had ever seen before. At least now, she could rule out the zombie theory…

Whatever it was, it looked bipedal, but it easily stalked the ground on all fours. It was slick, some sort of membrane oozed all over giving it a wet sheen. The body was a strange bright, baby blue. Briefly, she could discern some sort of beak just below its eyes, one similar to an octopus.

She cringed.

To her dismay it was creeping closer. Making rolling, clicking noises. Some sort of sub vocalization that droned out in waves and vibrated into her chest.

The sweat crawled down her body. Desiree was trying to slow her breath, keep it quiet, but the more she thought about it the harder it became. It felt like she was purposefully winding herself, and her lungs started to burn for deeper inhales.

At this rate, she had a prickling feeling that it would find them.

Her legs began shaking from the strain. The woman shot her a cross look, but there was nothing else she could do. It made the brush around them shake. And the creature's head, with a thick, triangular neck cocked into their direction.

"… The beach."

The woman whispered.

"Get… to the beach." The creature lowered itself closer to the ground, honing in on their noise.

"Hate… water, now run."

"Where?" She seethed.

The woman gestured with her chin in the direction they had been traveling in.

Desiree hesitated; she wanted to ask the woman how far away it was. How fast the creature could run.

It ran at them instead. Desiree bolted up from her crouch into a full on sprint. Her heartbeat drummed heavily in her ears. Vaguely, she could hear footsteps right behind her. She took a few sharp turns, followed as true to their original path as she could discern. But the jungle was thick, her perception of it skewed from her time following the stranger.

From her peripheral she could make out another bright blue figure edging up to her pace. She whimpered, the sound squeaking past her lips from the back of her throat as she heaved with another breath.

The forest clung and scratched, her limbs fatiguing. The footsteps had to be close by; the one beside her would lunge for her soon.

She could feel some sort of impact from her left side. Pain shooting from her arm; her shrill cry entered the air, and cracked out beyond the drum of her heart.

In moments the jungle broke away. With her next unbalanced step forward the ground had disappeared, and she was free falling. She hit the ground with the added weight in a tumble against the hot, white sand.

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 _To be continued…_

 **Rem:** Snippets here and there. I hope they're catching on a bit? I guess we'll see. Thank you for reading, and please review! I would love to hear if I can improve my writing at all or if you enjoyed the content. Cheers!


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